Friday, August 27, 2010

"SPRING has come and almost gone, Spring fashions are now familiar to us all: the smart navy-blue frocks with touches of white or gay color; and jacket of the same or a contrasting, checked material. The plain tailored suit with a tailored blouse is a different and favorite type. Hats are of infinite variety and shapes, the sailor meeting high favor, through tending to be flat as a pancake, as are the many irregularly shaped berets.

But it is to summer and hot-weather fashions we now turn. Here they are: gay, wearable, and attractive-silk suits, print dresses, large hats, trailing evening dresses of organza, and satin cape jackets, and feminine little capes of sheer fabrics.

The month of May is important with its weddings, graduations very near, Decoration Day, often attended by sports and all sorts of gayety. For street wear choose the silk suit or print dress, to be cool and smart-looking. Get yourself one or two ribbed cotton sports dresses , with a separate short swagger coat, also of cotton. It can be white over coral, yellow, or blue, and just right for sports and the country club. You will almost surely need and want one new soft afternoon dress of chiffon for those "don't dress" occasions. Get a trailing organza, net, or lace evening dress, with a transparent, high neck in the front, low cut in the back, and with a long scarf worn across the front of the neck with fluttering ends hanging at the back. Choose satin for the evening cape, which may be long or three-quarters length. Pay real attention to such important details as the new, warm beige shade of stockings; white or beige gloves to suit your costume; bags; sports shoes and sports jewelry with sports clothes; the more important pin, bag, and pumps for afternoon wear; the pale shades for evening clothes (there is less white and less black); and last but not least, and at all times of the day - morning, noon, and night -see that your hair has the new look, but adjust the stye to your face.

Some day I'm going to write a whole article entitled, "No Style Without Fit." Some women spend much money on clothes, and neglect to have them properly fitted, and then they wonder why they do not look stylish or smart. So remember, it's the cut of clothes, fitted to you, which gives smartness.

And now a word of caution regarding the type of clothes you choose. Unless you are very sure of yourself, do not go to extremes; but, on the other hand, buy the dress of the season - the dress with the new features. Be with the new style instead of lingering with the old, Here are points to look for in buying.

Our Paris Editor, who has been seeing everything new as it arrives, and has watched both the American buyers who have selected the models imported to America and the French women buying for themselves, has seen definite indications of what is being chosen and, therefore, accepted as the Style of the Spring and Summer of 1934. One interesting comment she sends me is that the American buyer and the french woman are choosing more nearly the same things nowadays than they have in the past.

The soft silk suit, either printed or plain, will be popular. Here we find much fine workmanship and feminine details, such as cascade revers instead of stiff ones, or pleating in frills or on edges, or puffed sleeves, or skirts with pleated sections, or capes and capelets instead of jackets.

This year there is a fight between back interest and front interest which is amusing to watch. Many designers have concentrated on back interest. Perhaps, on the whole, the "backs" have it. For the majority of evening skirts that are not the same on all sides have their movement concentrated in the back. The top of the body, however, tells another tale. Here we find many creators concentrating interest at the back of the neck-the hood, which is applied to coats, sults. and capes, But also, in quite a number of houses, there is some touch of interest just below the belt in front. There may be a bow or a basque or godets or a frill or even a panel of pleating up the front of the skirt.

Schiaparelli keeps all her width across the top of the body in the majority of her models, though some of her evening ones have eccentric movement in the backs of the skirts; even her plain suit skirts have little drapes, knots, folds, or circles of shirring at the bustle point in some cases. In a number of coats and suits she still uses the "Stormv Weather" line, in new interpretations. Prints of all varieties are in for a definite revival, for both day and evening clothes, as you see."

"Black paper panama is the Bourbon hat at top, trimmed with twisted black satin ribbon. Thin navy wool makes the coat; a multi-colored printed crepe, the dress of the ensemble, at left, from Schiaparelli. Checked black-and-white taffeta is the jacket; black satin, the skirt, of the Patou suit next. Jackets unlike in fabric and in color are new. "

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Well, it seems that the fall I had ten days ago was more than a fall, it was a seizure, and I know that because I had another (witnessed) one today. Having never so much as fainted before in my whole life this is a surprise. I'm fine, really. I'm started on some meds and will have more doctor visits to sort things out. But unless they tell me that vintage patterns are causing my seizures I don't expect much to change. Just want to let all my friends know what was going on...as much as I know. ;-)

Friday, August 20, 2010

"Messers Redfern... Gentlemen, Kindly make up for me the gown I selected yesterday, using as you suggested the fibre chamois in the waist for warmth, and in the skirt and sleeves to give them that very stylish and bouffant effect. I find that the woven petticoat does not give half the style that the genuine fibre chamois does. So naturally use nothing but the genuine goods. The imitation of this particular article I have found to be worse than useless...Lillian Russell"

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

There wasn't much of Paris in the Parisian Cloak Company but they were a long standing establishment and then were acquired over a few decades, finally to fade out in the 1980's. But they ruled in 1895!

Friday, August 13, 2010

I was at the hospital yesterday for the birth of Baby Landon...my daughters second child. Right after his wonderful birth I went out in the hall to make calls and woke up in the ER having fallen and lost about 45 minutes. I am fine, just some lingering dizziness to get followed up. (And Landon and his family are just fine!)But I wanted to let you all know what happened and where I was the last couple days...a little busy. :-)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

"Our new Fall and Winter Catalog is now ready. It illustrates styles in ladies' suits and cloaks that are exclusive and distinctly different from the ready-made garments."Just look at the pleats, topstitching and details on these offerings...then look at the prices!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

You may not need a new serviceable Waist, but ink stained clothes still happen. And the technique that widens that skirt is wonderful!

EDITOR DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT:- I bought a dark blue and white foulard gown this summer with the idea of not only wearing it throughout the summer, but of using it as all after-noon and evening gown during the fall and winter. I had the misfortune to spill a bottle of ink over the front breadth which has utterly ruined it. Is there any way I can fix the skirt so that it will look all right again? MRS. BELLE H.

ANSWER TO MRS BELLE H.- Yes indeed. Carry out the following directions and you will see how successfully it call be done. Cut a front gore, extending into a yoke, from green silk or satin, the proper shade to harmonize with your blue. Cover this with Irish lace. Cut the lace along the pattern on the lower edge of the yoke and down the side of the gore, and cut and turn under the silk on the same outline, and sew invisibly. Pipings are to be used this fall, and one of green velvet would be pretty outlining the yoke and the front breadth. Into your flounce set inlets of lace, four inches square, piped with green velvet. Set these in diagonally about ten inches apart. Place a strap of velvet three fourths of an inch wide, pointed at each end, from the lower point and along the lower edge of each inlet to the upper edge and upper point of its right-hand neighbor. It is too bad to have to remodel the waist to make it match the skirt, but there is no other way. Make the yoke and collar of lace over the green silk, and pipe the edge with velvet the same as the yoke of the skirt. Use lace inlets in the sleeves, with pipings and straps, but making them smaller than in the flounce. Make a pointed belt of green velvet as illustrated.

EDITOR DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT:-Will you please give me careful directions for making a separate waist, one which will wear well? I would like something which would be useful for traveling and every-day wear generally. J. H. G., Denver.

ANSWER TO J. H. G.-Select brilliantine as the material for your serviceable waist. Buy a good quality in either blue, gray or black. The model shown on this page is an attractive one to copy. Silver-gray brilliantine was used, and the waist was cut after a modification of the popular, Gibson style. For such a waist two and one half yards of material are enough. For cutting, place the center fronts on the selvage, the center back of the lengthwise fold, and the center of the sleeve straight on a lengthwise thread of the goods. The line of perforation in the pattern that indicates the plait over the shoulder must be accurately marked on the goods. On material that does not show the print of the tracing-wheel the marking may first be done through the perforation with chalk, and afterward with lines of basting. The making of the Gibson waist differs from others in this respect. The shoulder-seams are stitched, pressed open flat, then stitched on right side one fourth of an inch on either side of the seam. The plaits are then taken up, following the tracings exactly. Baste underarm seams, and fit, but do not make it snug under the arms. The fronts are closed with a fly, and the box-plait is trimmed with stitch arrow-heads, which are put on separately. After the waist has been fitted, unbaste the under-arm seams and stitch on the arrow-heads, Begin at the waist-line in the back, between the center of back and the plait, and let the arrow-head end in front at the bust-line. All the arrow-heads should be cut on the bias; but do not cut them until you are ready to use them, as brilliantine frays very quickly. Turn the edges in and baste carefully with short stitches before basting to the waist. The stitching must must be perfectly done. Close the under-arm seams, and bind the seam-edges. The neck-band should be silk or lined with it. A pretty stock may be made of the material, with an arrow-head turned over each side of the front, and closing under another in the back. The cuff closes with an arrow-head finish. The waist may be lined with lawn if lining is preferred, though it is not absolutely necessary.

EDITOR DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT:- I have a black brocaded satin dress that was made four years ago. The material is good, but the skirt is too narrow at the bottom. Can you tell me of some way to make it wider? It was bought ready-made, and I have no more material like it. The waist is a shirred waist, and is not like the skirt, as I bought the cloth and had it made. I think the sleeves are about as they make them now, and the waist has a yoke in the back, and the lower part is in variated plaits. Is there any suggestion you can make in regard to changing the waist, or would you wear it as it is? MRS. L.H. MATHEWS, APALACHIN, N.Y.

ANSWER TO MRS. L.H. MATHEWS, -Your brocaded drop-skirt may easily be made to flare at the foot by setting in on each side of the skirt three box-plaited sections of a heavy, large-mesh black net. If the skirt is seven-gored set one in each seam. If the skirt is cut in any other way put the box-plaits at even distances from the front seam. Take a piece of net twelve inches wide and twenty inches long, make a two-inch at the foot, and trim with two stitched straps of taffeta. Arrange the net in three box-plaits, and apply to the skirt with a lattice of stitched straps, as shown in illustration. The shirt-waist you mention is not in the present style; but as yokes are coming in again, it might be well to lay it aside until fall, when it may be all right. In the meantime wear a dainty white waist with the skirt.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

These "Fashions For Between Seasons" include the bodice of metallic velvet, waist with slot-seams and street-costumes for everyday wear. They describe the between season..."It is when the summer gowns have lost their freshness and when the fall modes are as yet too new and undeveloped to risk adoption." Don't miss those high collars, the tucks and pleats and the glorious hats!

Nice to Meet You

Welcome! I have this blog to share the treasures I find related to vintage sewing, and vintage fashion with occasional detours into whatever crosses my path. Everything I post is from some actual item I found. If you'd like to buy something you see contact me.
I sell sewing patterns for a living, you'll see the link below. Come on by!